Kadet Remaja Sekolah was founded by Muhammad Thani Bin Sha'aban at SM Raja Abdullah, Jalan Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. Initially, this organization was known as Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia (literally: Malaysia Islam Boys' Cadet Corps) and its membership was open to SM Raja Abdullah Islam Students' Association. It had only 20 members in the beginning consisting of Form 1 and Form 2 students only.
The Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia had its activities based on "Islam as a way of life". In 1989, a few other schools in the Federal Territories organised Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia. The schools that organized them were SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail under the leadership of Ustaz Ahmad Farazilla Bin Abdul Ghani, SM Sri Titiwangsa under the leadership of Mr. Anuar Bin Abd Aziz and SM Ma'ahad Hamidiah, Kajang, Selangor under the leadership of En. Abu Hassan Bin Morad.
In 1993, 53 secondary schools had organised Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia. The effort to make Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia as an official uniformed body under the Ministry of Education beginning on August 10, 1993. A meeting with the Director of Education of Malaysia, Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Wan Mohd Zahid Bin Wan Mohd Nordin was held on 13 September that year. In this meeting, the thesis about Kadet Putera Islam Malaysia (KPIM) was discussed. A committee was formed to prepare cabinet documents. The committee planned to changed KPIM to the name Kadet Putera-Puteri Islam (Islam Boys' and Girls' Cadet Corps). However, this name was again changed to Kadet Remaja Islam/Youth Islam Cadet Corps (KRIS)
In the meantime, the talk about KRIS to the Education Directors was held in October 1993 and was chaired by YB Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Wan Mohd Zahid. He made the decision to change KRIS to the name Kadet Remaja Sekolah Malaysia (KRS). It was officially launched on 20 June 1995 and its membership opened to all boys and girls regardless or religion. Since then, many schools began to bring in this youth organisation as they see the importance of uniformed groups in bringing up a student's discipline. KRS groups are mostly formed when a new school is established or brought in by the administrator of the schools which are established earlier.
